'I've never seen that kind of a freeze': Add Christmas trees to list of heavy frost victims

You can add Christmas trees to the list of victims of the heavy frost P.E.I. received in early June.

Sid Watts runs a small Christmas tree farm in Kilmuir, P.E.I., and dead brown buds can be seen on the tips of many of his trees.

"The damage is mostly the new growth, the tips on the trees that had already flushed," Watts said.

"They'd begun to grow for the season. They're quite susceptible at that stage to frost, only in this case I think it was a good hard freeze."

It just killed all that new growth, turned them black.— Sid Watts

About half of the crop he'd planned to be ready will not be fit for sale this Christmas season, he said.

"They're done, that's it — that's all there is for the season for them," Watts said.

'It'll affect the quality'

"But there's a lot of other tips that are a little further in on the trees that will grow out. They'll come through it, but it'll affect the quality of our trees," he said.

The dead shoots will fall off by autumn, Watts said, but the trees won't be shaped like people might expect.

"People are out looking for that really top-quality tree that's nice and even all over, and this will make them perhaps a little bit more erratic in their growth patterns this year," Watts said.

"When we come out to do our shearing there'll be lots of long tips on parts of the trees, and other parts there just won't be any. It won't look as even."

'Killed all that new growth'

Frost damage isn't uncommon, but Watts said the hard frost so late in the spring is completely new to him. He also has a few oak and chestnut trees, and said they were affected too.

"I've never seen this. I've never seen that kind of a freeze. It just killed all that new growth, turned them black."

Watts acknowledged the impact would be greater for larger operations.

"For someone who really depends on it for their living, it could be more than heartbreaking."

"Really, our main market is the choose-and-cut people. They like to see those perfect trees when they can, but I think they'll be forgiving. I think they'll understand."

Affected trees will be sold at a lower price, he said.

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